This section provides information about the Otis-Lennon School Ability TestŪ (OLSATŪ) and recommendations for material which can be used to prepare your child to provide the best performance possible.

The OLSATŪ includes tasks such as detecting likenesses and differences, recalling words and numbers, defining words, following directions, classifying, establishing sequence, solving arithmetic problems, and completing analogies. Its intent is to assess thinking skills and provide an understanding of a student's relative strengths and weaknesses in performing a variety of reasoning tasks. It is designed to get a measure of your child's ability level independent of what they're being taught at school.

There are seven different level of the OLSATŪ designed for use from Kindergarten to 12th grade. Some school districts test preschoolers.

Choose your child's grade level above for specific recommendations as to what you might do to prepare your child for testing. Since the OLSATŪ is most commonly used as a screening tool for gifted program entry these recommendations assume that you have a bright child. Most gifted and competitive entry programs attempt to identify children with cognitive abilities two to three years above those of their typical age peers. To answer the most difficult questions on the OLSATŪ given at your child's grade level your child will need to have thinking skills at this higher level.

You may find that your child's abilities are not even across the different reasoning skills. This is quite normal and you may decide to purchase different levels of books for verbal, non-verbal and quantitative skills. If you have any doubts please contact us and we'd be happy to help you make your selection. Email is usually faster. We can respond with links directly to the products we recommend so that you can browse at your convenience.

The Otis-Lennon School Ability TestŪ (OLSATŪ) is published by NCS Pearson (previously Harcourt Assessment Services and now operating as Pearson Assessment). OLSATŪ and Otis-Lennon School Ability TestŪ are registered trademarks of NCS Pearson. The recommendations made here are those of Think Tonight and are not endorsed by NCS Pearson.